★★★★★
I suggested that she take a tablespoon of ACV in water or fruit juice once a day till the doc was back and she could consult him again.
2 weeks later, the doc was back and after testing her told her she needn't go back to the medication again:)
When the mother of a 20-year old told me he's been having IBS ever since he was a child and that they've tried everything including holistic treatments, we decided to try the ACV. Same dosage of 1 tablespoon with water or fruit juice once a day. By the end of the first bottle his IBS was gone. It hasn't come back in the 5 years since then:)
Baking Soda
★★★★★
Apple Cider Vinegar
★★★★★
Activated Charcoal
★★★★★
For the last two weeks, he has been taking 2 charcoal tablets before bed every night. This has helped him very much. He is even eating salad without difficulty.
My gut was out of whack after travel and a stomach bug. Just one dose of charcoal finally got me back to normal. It's cheap and effective but shouldn't be taken within 2 hours of medications.
Juliette
Dietary Changes
You might give some consideration to discussing melatonin, probiotics and vitamin d with your doctor to see if they can help calm things down and help you get to sleep also. Lack of sleep is stressful on the whole body and has the potential to exacerbate IBS. Melatonin has shown the ability to help IBS and it has a very good safety profile and is naturally produced in the body suggesting a lower chance for allergic reactions to it. Melatonin was originally thought to only be produced in the pineal gland in dark hours of the day in very small amounts, but more recent studies confirm that melatonin is produced in the gut in much larger amounts and a disturbance in gut melatonin production may be a problem. Melatonin research, like vitamin d research, has shown that melatonin receptors are found throughout the body. Melatonin is readilly available, cheap, easy to take and has the potential to help IBS based on studies as well as improve sleeping patterns. Here is a study that mentions as much:
http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/full/v20/i10/2492.htm
Melatonin is a highly potent antioxidant and helps increase the bodies own very potent antioxidant system to heavilly quench multiple types of radicals throughout the body. Melatonin has many health benefits and is protective of the organs also. Certain probiotics have also been shown to increase gut melatonin levels and this may be one potential way that probiotics work their magic on some people, so potent probiotics may be helpful also. Melatonin seems to be effective at relatively low dosing and there are timed release versions available also. The studies for melatonin are pretty impressive and plentiful.
There are not a lot of studies, but the following abstract below, from PubMed, suggests that vitamin D may be helpful also so those are three easy ones you can discuss with your doctor. After the abstract is a link to a full study that discusses vitamin D and IBS. The very bottom link is to an abstract that discusses a specific probiotic and IBS.
Art
Neurogastroenterol Motil. 2016 Oct;28(10):1533-44. doi: 10.1111/nmo.12851. Epub 2016 May 7.
Effect of vitamin D on gastrointestinal symptoms and health-related quality of life in irritable bowel syndrome patients: a randomized double-blind clinical trial.
Abbasnezhad A1, Amani R2, Hajiani E3, Alavinejad P3, Cheraghian B4, Ghadiri A5.
Author information
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Low-grade mucosal inflammation and immune activation are involved in the pathogenesis of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Furthermore, IBS symptoms are associated with a significantly higher prevalence of psychological distress, which in itself results into an impaired quality of life (QoL). Vitamin D could ameliorate the symptoms of patients suffering from IBS through its beneficial effects on psychological factors and inflammation.
METHODS:
A total of 90 IBS patients participated in this double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. Participants were randomly selected to receive either 50 000 IU vitamin D3 or a placebo fortnightly for a period of 6 months. Patients reported their IBS symptoms at the baseline and monthly during intervention periods. The IBS severity score system (IBSSS) and IBS-specific QoL questionnaires were used at the baseline and postintervention.
KEY RESULTS:
Over the 6-month intervention period, a significantly greater improvement in IBS symptoms such as abdominal pain and distention, flatulence, rumbling, and overall gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms (except dissatisfaction with bowel habits) was observed in the patients receiving vitamin D as compared to the placebo group. The IBSSS and the IBS-QoL scores in the vitamin D group significantly improved compared to the placebo group postintervention (mean IBSSS score change: -53.82 ± 23.3 vs -16.85 ± 25.01, p < 0.001, respectively; mean IBS-QoL score change: 14.26 ± 3 vs 11 ± 2.34, p < 0.001, respectively).
CONCLUSIONS & INFERENCES:
Vitamin D seems to be an effective and safe option to improve QoL and symptoms of IBS. ClinicalTrials.gov
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4691664/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28410580
Art
Activated Charcoal
★★★★★
Happy stomach.
EC: Read more about Activated Charcoal here: https://www.earthclinic.com/remedies/charcoal.html
Peppermint Oil
★★★★★
Apple Cider Vinegar
★★★★★
Chromium Picolinate
★★★★★
I also found it helps for frequent urination but I made a different post for that. I hope this helps somebody!
★★★★★
★★★★★
★★★★★
Melatonin
★★★★★
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10131443/
Here are a few relevant quotes from the randomized, double blind, placebo controlled human study :
' Melatonin can be considered an effective treatment for improving IBS score, GI symptoms, and quality of life in IBS patients with and without sleep disorders. It is also effective to improve sleep parameters in IBS patients with sleep disorders. '
' The results of our trial showed that in both groups of patients with and without sleep disorders, receiving melatonin leads to a significant improvement in IBS score and GI symptoms, including the severity and the frequency of abdominal pain, the severity of abdominal bloating, satisfaction with bowel habits, disease's impact on patient's life, and stool consistency'
' In patients with sleep disorders, significant improvement in sleep parameters, including subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and daytime dysfunction, was observed, while in patients without sleep disorders, there was no significant improvement in sleep parameters. In addition, quality-of-life improvement was observed in a significant number of melatonin recipients compared to placebo in both groups of patients. '
Of interest in this study is the fact that they only used a total of 6 mg of melatonin per day in two divided doses of 3 mg each. A fairly simple plan for significant alleviation of IBS. Also of interest in this study was the number of participants, 136, a very good size study.
This is a very significant and important study, given that IBS is one of the world's most common gastrointestinal disorders and current medical treatments are often ineffective.
Art
Gelatin
★★★★★
I have a remedy I haven't seen listed that has given me my life back.
I got C.difficil after a double round of antibiotics. I took the special antibiotic to get rid of the C.diff, which it did. But 6 months later I was hit with IBS-D, chronic diarrhea making it difficult to leave the house.
I tried every remedy on this site and others. I saw a gastro doctor who offered little help. Nothing worked.
I read antedotally that plain gelatin helped with diarrhea, and that it helped increase the mucosal lining of the intestines.
I began with 2 packets per day (morning & evening) mixed into my hot coffee or tea. I had relief within the first few days. Soft, but formed stools.
After a couple months I began using just one packet in my morning coffee, and continued with no problem.
After 6 months I did an experiment and got off it completely. I had one or 2 loose movements over a week, a vast improvement over previously. I have gone back to my morning packet ever since, and have not had diarrhea in a year and a half.
I mentioned this remedy to my regular doctor's nurse. She mentioned it to another patient who tried it and told the nurse to tell me "Thank you, I got my life back!"
Buy plain gelatin packets in the baking supply aisle of the grocery store. About $6 for 30 packets. It mixes and dissolves best in very hot liquid. Mixed with cold (even a drop of water in your mug) makes a gelatinous mess that dissolves eventually, but not easily.
Try it and let others know it works!!
★★★★★
Here's what I learned: you don't need to eat a whole lot of the sauerkraut, just a nice forkful...I am trying it out once a day, but I think as I go along, maybe just 3 forkfuls a week would be OK because you don't want to upset the balance of the good and bad bacteria in your gut. I am thrilled with this finding. Several weeks before my "gastro doc" prescribed Cholesdtyramine for oral suspension. It's a powder that you mix with water or juice. That did work for about 3 days and it was back to diarreah. Anyway, it messes up your cholesterol and bile and who wants that? Please try this natural, easy to eat sauerkraut and let everyone know who you do. Thanks for reading.
Parasite Cleanse
★★★★★
Blessings... this is also symptoms of intestinal parasites. Always good to do a parasite cleanse twice a year...
Bentonite Clay
★★★★★
For the past several months, I have been taking just a small amount (no more than 1 T a day, in purified water) & I have went from 10-15 loose bowel movements a day, to two normal bm's. I saw the results immediately. I do not take fiber.
I had forgotten what normal was. It was so bad that I could eat, almost nothing w/o getting extremely sick. On occasion, I still take Prilosec for acid reflux, but no other stomach meds!!
I hope this info helps others, as it has given me my life back. ;)
